San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin today filed an unfair business practices action against food delivery service outfit DoorDash — which has persistently classified its workers as independent contractors and not employees, in the face of California law. 

“I assure you this is just the first step among many to fight for worker safety and equal enforcement of the law,” said Boudin at today’s virtual press conference. This action will be led by Assistant District Attorney Scott Stillman’s Economic Crimes Against Workers Unit — “and I did not bring ADA Stillman into the office to file one lawsuit,” Boudin continued.

Messages for DoorDash were not returned as of press time. 

Today’s action was filed under section 17200 of the state Business and Professions Code, which applies to “any unlawful, unfair or fraudulent business act.” Either a DA or a City Attorney can take action under this code — and, in fact, City Attorney Dennis Herrera in May joined colleagues in Los Angeles and San Diego in filing a suit against Uber and Lyft for allegedly miscategorizing their workers.  

Under the California Supreme Court’s “Dynamex” decision from April 2018, a three-point test was established to determine whether workers should be classified as employees or independent contractors. 

No reasonable interpretation of that ruling could lead to determining Doordash workers — or, for that matter, Uber and Lyft drivers, or many others — as anything but employees. 

News broke in April 2019 that DoorDash was applying tips given to its workers to apply to their base wages instead of serving as a gratuity — leading to a complaint being filed against the company with the city’s Office of Labor Standards and Enforcement.  

In September 2019, the “Dynamex” decision was essentially codified as law under AB5, authored by Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez (D-San Diego). 

“When you think about theft, you don’t often think about wage theft,” said Gonzalez, who attended today’s virtual presser. “If an employee stole from their boss, they’d go to jail. But employers steal from workers, in large amounts, every day.” 

By misclassifying workers as independent contractors instead of employees, companies can shirk on paying minimum wage, providing mandated breaks, and providing healthcare or sick days. Workers in such conditions are subsidized by the social safety net — which is, in turn, subsidized by taxpayers and law-abiding companies. 

“DoorDash has long been an exploitative employer,” UC Hastings labor law professor Veena Dubal told Mission Local. “Like Uber, the company’s business model is based on the fiction that their workers are independent contractors. This means that the people whose labor has created the company’s sky-high valuation do not have access to a wage floor, to workers’ compensation if they are injured, or to unemployment insurance if they are laid off through no fault of their own.”  

During the ongoing pandemic, Dubal continued, these workers have been further deemed “essential,” and have been “risking their lives to get food from restaurants to families in lockdown.”

“DoorDash has been vigorously fighting claims of employment by their delivery drivers,” said Dubal. “This lawsuit today — brought by the district attorney of San Francisco — puts the weight of the state behind these claims.”

DoorDash Complaint by Joe Eskenazi on Scribd

Update, 2:20 p.m.: A statement from Max Rettig, DoorDash Global Head of Public Policy:

Now more than ever, Californians from all walks of life look to DoorDash for flexible earnings opportunities, working on average a few hours per week. Throughout the pandemic, DoorDash has supported Dashers on and off the road with free safety equipment, telemedicine, earnings replacement, and more. Today’s action seeks to disrupt the essential services Dashers provide, stripping hundreds of thousands of students, teachers, parents, retirees and other Californians of valuable work opportunities, depriving local restaurants of desperately needed revenue, and making it more difficult for consumers to receive prepared food, groceries, and other essentials safely and reliably. We will fight to continue providing Dashers the flexible earning opportunities they say they want in these challenging times.

If you want to keep us employed — and have not already done so — please support us now.

The post San Francisco DA Chesa Boudin sues DoorDash for ‘unlawful misclassification’ of staff as impartial contractors appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

A little over a year ago, voters ousted Chesa Boudin as San Francisco’s District Attorney, ending the 2½-year reign of a prosecutor who had eliminated cash bail and vowed to hold police accountable. 

Boudin—a pioneer of the so-called progressive prosecutor movement—was seen by many as a lightning rod for growing discontent in the city over rising property crime and disorder on the streets. 

Former San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin, second from left, discusses prison reform and progressive politics during a post-screening Q&A of “Beyond Bars: It’s a Movement, Not a Moment” at the San Francisco Public Library’s Koret Auditorium on Wednesday. | Source: Christina Campodonico/The Standard

The former DA dipped back into San Francisco politics on Wednesday with the debut of a new documentary about his life. Beyond Bars: It’s Movement, Not a Moment chronicles Boudin’s 2019 campaign for San Francisco DA on a progressive platform, how his life was shaped by the incarceration of his parents—two famed members of the radical militant group the Weather Underground—and how these stories intersect with systemic issues facing families across the criminal justice system.   

The premiere at the San Francisco Public Library’s Koret Auditorium also doubled as a rally of sorts to energize progressive voters for the city’s November 2024 election, and the ousted DA did not mince words on how he sees the current state of city governance, which he called a “dictatorship.” 

“It is horrible to watch what is happening in this city,” Boudin said during a panel discussion following the screening. 

It wasn’t clear whether this barb was directed at District Attorney Brooke Jenkins, the prosecutor who replaced him, or at Mayor London Breed—who’s pushing the city’s recent crackdown on crime as a cornerstone of her reelection bid in 2024. Boudin did not respond to The Standard’s request for clarification of the comment.

READ MORE: The Rise and Fall of Chesa Boudin: Why a Progressive DA Lost in Deep-Blue San Francisco

Whoever was his intended target, Boudin insisted that “this campaign and this movement was never about me or my career.”

He added that he chose not to seek reelection in 2024 to avoid repeating “the same mistakes that my parents made of putting politics before family. 

“I had to think about how could I continue to do work that was so profoundly important to me, to my community, the city that I loved,” Boudin told the audience. 

In interviews for the documentary “Beyond Bars” conducted before her 2022 death, activist, educator and academic Kathy Boudin reflects on raising her son, former District Attorney Chesa Boudin, from behind prison walls. | Source: Courtesy Brave New Films

Since leaving office, Boudin has taken on a new job heading UC Berkeley Law’s new Criminal Law & Justice Center, a research and advocacy hub focusing on criminal justice reform. 

The U.S. criminal justice system has shaped Boudin’s life from the start. As chronicled in the film, Boudin was just 14 months old when his parents—then Weather Underground members—left him with a babysitter to take part in a botched heist of a Brink’s armored truck in 1981 that ultimately left two police officers and a security guard dead. 

A film still from the documentary “Beyond Bars” shows a family photo of a young Chesa Boudin with his father, David Gilbert. | Source: Courtesy Brave New Films

Boudin’s mother, Kathy Boudin, who died last year after a long battle with cancer, was released on parole in 2003 after serving more than 20 years in prison and became an advocate for criminal justice reform, people with HIV/AIDS and children’s literacy. Boudin’s father, David Gilbert, was imprisoned for 40 years before his sentence was commuted by former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo in 2021. Gilbert was in attendance at Wednesday’s screening. 

READ MORE: Who Is Chesa Boudin? Meet the San Francisco DA at the Center of a Media Storm

The pain of the separation between Boudin and his parents is documented with heartfelt excerpts from letters between Boudin and his imprisoned father, as well as collect calls and candid interviews with Gilbert and Kathy Boudin before her death. Throughout the film, Boudin’s parents express remorse for participating in the Brink’s heist and leaving behind their infant son. 

The documentary also illustrates the emotional toll Boudin experienced as a child moving between the stable Chicago home of his adoptive parents, another Weather Underground couple named Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn, and visiting his real parents behind bars. Dohrn recounts in the film how Boudin as a toddler would fall into two-day temper tantrums, and Ayers recalls how the clang of prison doors haunted the adolescent Boudin. The film also stresses how even short family visits like the ones Boudin was able to have with his family as a teenager can offer short stints of normalcy for families separated by incarceration. 

Brave New Films’ documentary on the life of Chesa Boudin includes vintage family photos from his childhood. | Source: Courtesy Brave New Films

Social media footage from Boudin’s 2019 campaign for district attorney, as well as policy accomplishments from his tenure, such as abolishing cash bail and filing unprecedented homicide charges against a former SFPD officer, also illustrate the optimism and momentum of the progressive prosecutor movement at the time.      

READ MORE: The Recall of Chesa Boudin: How the Pandemic Fed a National Attack on Progressive Prosectors

Director Robert Greenwald, who is also the president of Brave New Films, the social justice-oriented not-for-profit film company that produced the documentary, said he was drawn to Boudin’s story because it illustrates the universal pain of family separation.  

“The idea of four parents—two locked up, two not—it’s extraordinary,” Greenwald said. 

The filmmakers hope that Boudin’s story—intertwined with those of formerly incarcerated people, prison reform activists and children with parents in prison—will mobilize reforms. The documentary will be screened in several U.S. cities this winter before being released on the Brave New Films website in mid-January. 

A film still from the new documentary about Chesa Boudin’s life, “Beyond Bars,” captures a moment from the former DA’s 2019 campaign victory night. | Source: Eddy Hernandez/Courtesy Brave New Films

Boudin told the Standard the film was “a story about mass incarceration and racial injustice in this country, and one person’s struggle to fight for a better, safer world.” 

Despite the recall that forced him from office prematurely, Boudin believes that “the movement of progressive prosecution and criminal justice reform is growing. It has momentum. And I have tremendous confidence that the policies and practices championed by this movement will continue to advance safety and be popular amongst voters.”

Boudin told Wednesday’s audience that he was excited to see who would step up to run against Jenkins to become the city’s next DA. He added, “I’m so excited to see who’s going to step up and beat London Breed.”

The post Chesa Boudin Calls San Francisco Authorities a ‘Dictatorship’ appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

News

From Jorge Fitz Gibbon

May 31, 2023 | 10:35 p.m

Warning: Graphic content

Former San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin, a controversial progressive prosecutor who was fired by voters last year for his soft-crime policies, is taking over as head of a new criminal justice center at the UC Berkeley School of Law.

Boudin, 42, has been named executive director of the school’s Criminal Law & Justice Center, he announced Wednesday in an editorial in the San Francisco Chronicle.

“In my new role, just as I did as District Attorney, I will continue to draw on networks of attorneys, activists, judges and legal practitioners to support reform and advance safety in a way that is rigorous, principled and responsive to the lived experiences of the communities directly affected,” he wrote.

“The center will systematically evaluate the results of specific policies and communicate to the public what policy changes are essential to improving public safety and equity,” Boudin said.

“Electoral politics will only advance the criminal justice reform movement so far. Winning a few major elections alone is not enough to bring about lasting change. I learned a lot during my tenure, including that people’s feelings are often more important than data and facts.”

Boudin, who faced criticism in the City of Gold as a criminal prosecutor, was voted out in a recall election in June – and announced in August he would not seek to retake the post.

Chase Boudin, 42, the progressive San Francisco prosecutor who was ousted from office by voters in June, said he is now the founding director of Berkeley Law School’s new Criminal Justice Center. AP

Critics said the left-wing prosecutors’ policies contributed to a rise in crime in the city, as drug dealers publicly sold their wares and shoplifting and robberies were rampant.

About 60% of San Francisco voters voted in favor of recall.

But in his editorial, Boudin stuck to his progressive stance, claiming that it’s Republicans and the “sensational media” that are making public safety an issue – calling it an “artificial frenzy.”

“In New York state, officials have rolled back pre-trial release reforms for poor people who cannot afford bail,” Boudin said.

Boudin has been named executive director of the school’s Criminal Law & Justice Center, he announced Wednesday in an editorial in the San Francisco Chronicle.MediaNews Group via Getty Images

“Meanwhile, despite widespread claims of funding cuts, police budgets across the country have skyrocketed without demand for accountability.

“Even in liberal San Francisco, the mayor’s office shut down a regulated drug consumption facility while tightening surveillance of drug users, with results that were both predictable and tragic: the city is experiencing by far its deadliest year from drug overdoses on record.”

At Berkeley, Boudin will conduct research and advocate for criminal justice reform, the school’s dean said in a press release announcing the move.

“Since joining Berkeley Law, I have wanted to create a criminal justice and justice center to further advance the important work our amazing faculty and clinics do in this area,” said Erwin Chemerinsky, dean of Berkely Law School, in a statement.

“I am very excited to open the center and that Chesa Boudin will be its first managing director,” said Chemerinsky.

“Chesa was selected after a nationwide search and has extensive experience across the criminal justice system. He has thought deeply about the system and I can think of no one better able to establish and lead this important center.”

Boudin is the son of Kathy Boudin and David Gilbert, who were members of the far-left terrorist organization Weather Underground.

Both were convicted of murder and serving decades of prison time in the deadly 1981 ambush of a Brink armored truck in Rockland County, New York.

The 14-month-old future prosecutor grew up in Chicago with adoptive parents.

“Both of my birth parents were arrested when I was a baby and together served 62 years in prison,” Boudin wrote in his editorial.

“A lifetime of visiting her behind bars, coupled with the years I spent as public defender and then as elected attorney general, have shown me the disastrous failure of California and the country’s current approach to justice.”

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Am 24. Oktober 2021 veröffentlichte der San Francisco Chronicle ein Interview, das die politische Landschaft der Stadt im Alleingang verändern würde. Das Thema war Brooke Jenkins, die das Büro der fortschrittlichen Staatsanwältin der Stadt, Chesa Boudin, verließ und ihm Inkompetenz, ideologische Starrheit und eklatantes Missmanagement vorwarf.

Brooke Jenkins spricht während eines Interviews im Mai über die bevorstehende Rückrufwahl der damaligen Bezirksstaatsanwältin von San Francisco, Chesa Boudin. (Hafen Daley/AP)

„Das Büro der Staatsanwaltschaft ist jetzt ein sinkendes Schiff. Es ist wie die Titanic, und es geht mit der öffentlichen Sicherheit einher“, sagte Jenkins dem Chronicle. Sie kündigte auch an, dass sie sich einer Kampagne für die Wahlmaßnahme anschließen würde, die, wenn sie von den Wählern ratifiziert würde, Boudin entfernen und es Bürgermeister London Breed ermöglichen würde, einen Ersatz zu benennen.

Jenkins, eine schwarze und lateinamerikanische Frau, die in der Bay Area beheimatet ist, wurde zum öffentlichen Gesicht der Boudin-Rückrufbemühungen, die als Referendum über eine fortschreitende Reform der Strafjustiz landesweite Aufmerksamkeit erlangten.

Der Versuch der Recall-Gegner, die Opposition gegen Boudin als Putsch der Republikaner darzustellen, konnte die Wähler in dieser überwältigend liberalen Stadt nicht überzeugen. Im Juni verdrängten San Franciscans Boudin mit großem Vorsprung. Einige Wochen später ernannte Breed Jenkins zu seinem Nachfolger. Und erst vor wenigen Tagen gab Jenkins bekannt, dass sie beabsichtigt, 2022 für eine volle Amtszeit zu kandidieren, wenn Boudin eine Wiederwahl angestrebt hätte.

San Francisco, eine Stadt, in der Afroamerikaner weniger als 6 % der Bevölkerung ausmachen, hat jetzt drei schwarze Anführer: Breed, Jenkins und Polizeichef William Scott. Aber die Stadt, die sie beaufsichtigen, ist mit Herausforderungen konfrontiert, von leeren Bürotürmen bis hin zu Straßen in der Innenstadt, die mit Injektionsnadeln übersät sind. Nicht zuletzt war Boudin mit seinem privilegierten Hintergrund und seinem ungeschickten politischen Stil ein einfacher Sündenbock.

Seine Verleumder haben endlich all die Macht, die sie ihm zwei Jahre lang abgerungen haben. Was werden sie damit machen? Jenkins hat geschworen, enger mit der Polizei zusammenzuarbeiten, Verstöße gegen die Lebensqualität zu verfolgen, Wiederholungstäter zu verfolgen und die Geißel der harten Drogen einzudämmen. Das sind enorm ehrgeizige Ziele, für die Jenkins nicht viel Zeit hat: Jenkins muss im November kandidieren, um ihren Job einfach für den Rest von Boudins erster Amtszeit zu behalten, und dann noch einmal im November 2023, wenn sie eine volle Amtszeit will ihrer eigenen.

Die Geschichte geht weiter

Chesa Boudin und seine Frau Valerie Block am Wahlabend in San Francisco im Juni. (Noah Berger/AP)

„Wir hoffen, Änderungen sofort auf der Straße zu sehen“, sagte Jenkins kürzlich in einem Telefongespräch mit Yahoo News. Sie sagt, dass sich die Menschen bereits „beginnend sicherer fühlen“, nachdem Boudin gegangen ist und seine ablehnende Haltung gegenüber der Polizei vermutlich nicht mehr vorhanden ist. „Zweieinhalb Jahre lang wurden sie völlig ignoriert“, sagt sie über die einfachen San Franciscaner, die vor der Vertreibung Boudins aus dem Amt einen Hinweis darauf gaben, wie tief ihre politische Frustration geworden war, indem sie drei Schulvorstandsmitglieder in Erinnerung riefen, die sich auf ideologische Weise eingelassen hatten eigene Kreuzzüge. „Sie wollen nur gehört werden.“

Yahoo News traf sich zum ersten Mal im Februar mit Jenkins, mitten in der Rückrufaktion von Boudin. Beim Mittagessen in Chinatown drückte sie ihre ungeschminkte Bestürzung darüber aus, was aus San Francisco wurde, eine Pointe von Fox News über den Amoklauf des Liberalismus.

„Ich denke, seine allgemeinen Ziele sind edel“, sagte sie damals über Boudin. „Die Art und Weise, wie er sie erreicht, ist rücksichtslos. Und es ist gefährlich.“

Jenkins sprach im Juli ein zweites Mal mit Yahoo News, nachdem sie mehrere Wochen im Amt war. „Ich bin in ein Büro gegangen, von dem ich wusste, dass es viele Probleme hatte“, begründete sie frühe Personalentscheidungen, die aus ihrer Sicht zwar notwendig waren, aber nicht wenig Kontroversen ausgelöst haben.

Einer der ersten Schritte von Boudin im Jahr 2020 war die Entlassung von sieben Staatsanwälten, was einige befürchtete, eine ideologische Säuberung, die das Büro behindern würde. Jenkins tat bei ihrer Übernahme das Gleiche und entließ 15 von Boudins Top-Mitarbeitern. Viele von ihnen beschwerten sich bei progressiven Medien, die Boudin wohlgesonnen waren.

„Ich kam ins Büro von DA Boudin, um für eine Reform der Strafjustiz zu kämpfen; Dieser Kampf war noch nie so dringend“, sagte Rachel Marshall, ehemalige Sprecherin von Boudin, die von Jenkins gefeuert wurde, gegenüber Intercept. „Es steht außer Frage, dass sich der Ansatz von DA Jenkins dramatisch von meinen Werten unterscheidet.“

Freiwillige auf der 19th Avenue in San Francisco im Mai fordern Autofahrer auf, Boudin zurückzurufen. (Hafen Daley/AP)

Boudin hat ihre Beschwerden eifrig verstärkt und kürzlich ein Flammen-Emoji verwendet, das häufig verwendet wird, um ein feuriges Argument anzuzeigen, das der Zustimmung wert ist, um Marshall zu retweeten. „DA Jenkins verwendet progressive Rhetorik, um einen regressiven Ansatz der Strafjustiz zu maskieren“, lautete Marshalls Nachricht. „Es ist nicht ‚fortschrittlich‘, strengere ‚Konsequenzen‘ (sprich: Inhaftierung) für Eigentumsdelikte oder mehr ‚Rechenschaftspflicht‘ (sprich: Inhaftierung) für Drogen zu fordern.“

„Ich schenke Twitter keine Beachtung“, sagt Jenkins, die aus ihrer Abneigung gegen Boudin keinen Hehl macht. „Er hat das Recht, die Gefühle zu haben, die er hat. Ich bin nur hier, um die Arbeit zu erledigen. Zeitraum.” (Boudin antwortete nicht auf mehrere Anfragen nach Kommentaren von Yahoo News.)

Ähnlich wie Eric Adams, der frühere New Yorker Polizeibeamte, der Anfang dieses Jahres Bürgermeister der Stadt wurde, tat Jenkins den Twitter-Diskurs als Domäne von Eliten ab, die von alltäglichen Sorgen entfernt sind. „Ich bin eine schwarze und lateinamerikanische Frau, die in der Bay Area aufgewachsen ist. Ich kenne – nicht aus einem Buch gelesen oder es in einem College-Klassenzimmer gehört – die Notlage der Farbigen in diesem Land“, sagte Jenkins gegenüber Yahoo News.

„Polizeibrutalität war für mich schon immer real. Ganz ehrlich, ich bin nicht mit Vertrauen in die Polizei aufgewachsen“, fügt sie hinzu. „Ich habe als Kind miterlebt, wie mein Onkel rassistisch profiliert wurde.“

Boudins Beziehung zu Scott, dem Polizeichef, verschlechterte sich zu einer Reihe von Vorwürfen, wie viele befürchteten. Boudin beschuldigte die Abteilung, zu wenige Verhaftungen vorgenommen zu haben; Die Abteilung – und insbesondere die kämpferische Polizeigewerkschaft – beschuldigte Boudin, Fälle nicht strafrechtlich verfolgt zu haben. Anfang Februar kündigte Scott eine Kooperationsvereinbarung mit der Staatsanwaltschaft, ein Zeichen dafür, dass seine Verzweiflung über Boudin (von der Breed bekanntlich geteilt hat) ihren Höhepunkt erreicht hatte.

„Es ist unsere Pflicht, unsere Verpflichtung, mit anderen Strafverfolgungsbehörden zusammenzuarbeiten“, sagt Jenkins. Aber sie lehnt auch die Vorstellung ab, dass sie in eine Zeit zurückkehren will, in der Polizei und Staatsanwaltschaft zusammengearbeitet haben, ohne Rücksicht auf bürgerliche Freiheiten. „Ich möchte, dass meine Anwälte wissen, dass sie, wenn sie etwas in einem Polizeibericht lesen, das nicht richtig sitzt, zum Management gehen und darüber sprechen können.“

Der Polizeichef von San Francisco, William Scott, bei einer Pressekonferenz im Januar. (Gabrielle Lurie/San Francisco Chronicle über Getty Images)

Vorwürfe, sie werde die Überpolizeiung von Minderheitenvierteln fördern und auf eine belastende Verurteilung drängen, seien „ungenau und unfair“, sagt Jenkins, die erste schwarze Frau, die das Amt des Bezirksstaatsanwalts von San Francisco innehatte, seit Vizepräsidentin Kamala Harris dies zwischen 2004 und 2011 tat. Jenkins sagte, ihr Hauptziel sei es, die Ordnung in einem Büro wiederherzustellen, das im Tagesgeschäft so schlecht geführt worden sei, dass ein Richter Boudin einmal von der Bank aus denunziert habe.

„Menschen wollen Kompetenz.“ sagte Jenkins. „Sie wollen Menschen, die sich kümmern. Es gibt eine Menge, die wir hätten tun können, was einfach nicht getan wurde.“

Und sie argumentiert, dass die Welle der vorzeitigen Entlassungen notwendig gewesen sei, um das Vertrauen in das Amt wiederherzustellen. „Der größte Teil des Managements bestand aus Leuten, die keine Erfahrung mit der Staatsanwaltschaft hatten“, sagt sie über Boudins oberste Stellvertreter, von denen die meisten seine ideologischen Ansichten teilten, aber wie der Bezirksstaatsanwalt selbst keine Erfahrung in der Strafverfolgung zu haben schienen.

„Ja, sie waren kompetente und fähige und respektable öffentliche Verteidiger“, fügte Jenkins hinzu. „Aber das Problem war, dass sie keine erfahrenen Staatsanwälte waren.“

Jenkins, Absolvent der University of California, Berkeley, und der juristischen Fakultät der University of Chicago, trat 2014 in die Staatsanwaltschaft von San Francisco ein, um für George Gascón zu arbeiten. Gascón, der weithin als fortschrittlich angesehen wird, ging 2019 nach Los Angeles und bereitete die Wahl vor, die Boudin in diesem Jahr knapp gewann.

„Ich werde nicht wegwerfen, was ich von Gascón gelernt habe“, sagte Jenkins über den Bezirksstaatsanwalt von LA. „Ich habe es genossen, für George zu arbeiten.“ (Gascón, der sich seit seinem Ausscheiden aus San Francisco in Fragen der Strafjustiz deutlich nach links bewegt hat, sieht sich nun einer eigenen Rückrufinitiative gegenüber.)

„Die Strafreform hat nicht mit Chesa begonnen und wird nicht enden“, sagt Jenkins und beschreibt Boudin als „weißen Mann, der in Reichtum aufgewachsen ist“.

Bezirksstaatsanwalt George Gascón am Montag auf einer Pressekonferenz in Los Angeles. (Jason Armond/Los Angeles Times über Getty Images)

Nachdem seine Eltern, Mitglieder des Weather Underground, 1981 wegen eines misslungenen Raubüberfalls, der zu drei Todesfällen führte, ins Gefängnis kamen, wurde Boudin von den wohlhabenden Radikalen Bill Ayers und Bernardine Dohrn aus Chicago großgezogen. Er besuchte die Yale University und reiste durch Südamerika, wo er seine Erfahrungen in einem Buch zusammenfasste, das eine bekanntermaßen vernichtende Rezension von der New York Times erhielt.

Jenkins hingegen stammt aus dem hartgesottenen Vorort Union City in der Bay Area. „Ich weiß, wie es ist, von einer alleinerziehenden Mutter aufgezogen zu werden“, sagte sie gegenüber Yahoo News und beschrieb, wie es war, zu Lebensmittelvorräten und Secondhand-Läden geschleppt zu werden. „Ich bekomme diesen Kampf und ich arbeite dagegen, eine Statistik zu sein. Das beeinflusst die Art und Weise, wie ich diese Arbeit mache.“

Im Jahr 2020 wurde der Cousin ihres Mannes, Jerome Mallory, bei einer Schießerei im Bayview-Viertel von San Francisco getötet, das seit langem unter kommunaler Vernachlässigung leidet. Sie und andere haben argumentiert, dass fortschrittliche Reformen der Strafjustiz wenig für schwarze und braune Gemeinschaften tun, die von Kriminalität geplagt werden.

„Das sind die Menschen, die leiden. Es sind nicht die Menschen hoch oben auf dem Hügel, die über Rassenunterschiede predigen können, die sie nie erlebt haben“, sagt Jenkins über die berühmte Topographie von San Francisco. Auf Hügeln gelegene Viertel wie Pacific Heights überragen den Rest der Stadt. Für die Reichen in viktorianischen Villen und gläsernen Wohntürmen kann die Notlage der Armen und Vernachlässigten nur allzu leicht vergessen werden.

Jenkins hatte nie den Luxus. „Sie sollten nicht so leben müssen“, sagt sie. Sie verspricht auch, es der einflussreichen chinesisch-amerikanischen Gemeinde der Stadt besser zu machen, die sich oft von Boudin beleidigt fühlte. Chinesischsprachige Wähler erwiesen sich sowohl für die Rückrufe von Boudin als auch für die Schulbehörde als entscheidend und werden sicherlich für Jenkins’ eigene Aussichten von zentraler Bedeutung sein.

„Es wird eine klare Verantwortlichkeit geben“, sagt Jenkins. „Sie werden gehört.“

Am Sonntag veranstaltete eine Gruppe von Aktivisten eine Kundgebung nach zwei Angriffen auf asiatische Senioren, von denen einer ein ehemaliger Stadtkommissar gewesen war. Unterdessen strömt Fentanyl weiterhin in die Bay Area. Jenkins hat versprochen, gegenüber Drogendealern viel härter vorzugehen als Boudin, der die Polizisten frustrierte, indem er verlangte, dass sie ihm „Kilos, keine Krümel“ bringen. Aber in jeder Hinsicht wird sie von der Zeit gelähmt sein, ganz zu schweigen von der berühmt freizügigen Kultur der Stadt.

„Ja, wir sind eine Stadt des Mitgefühls. Ja, wir sind eine Stadt der zweiten Chance“, sagte sie. Aber sie weigert sich, San Francisco zur Stadt eines dystopischen, konservativen Albtraums werden zu lassen. „Das sind wir nicht.“

The post San Francisco District Legal professional Brooke Jenkins, who changed Chesa Boudin, nonetheless has a lot to show appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) – San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin has been recalled, the Associated Press is projecting.

59.9% of San Francisco voters opted to oust the district attorney by voting Yes on Proposition H, compared to 40.0% who voted to keep him in office, according to the last preliminary election returns Tuesday at 10:40 pm

Boudin’s recall has national implications, a sign that voters are increasingly concerned about public safety, and illustrating a cleavage in priorities between progressive activists and rank-and-file Democratic voters even in deep-blue San Francisco.

Mary Jung, the former chair of the city’s Democratic Party who became chair of the recall campaign, stated that “San Francisco voters sent a clear message that they want a District Attorney who prioritizes public safety for every community. San Francisco voters are engaged and well-informed. They know that we can have important criminal justice reforms and public safety for all, but that neither was being achieved with Chesa in office.”

Jung stated that “San Franciscans want leadership that holds serious, violent, and repeat offenders accountable while never forgetting the rights of victims and their families.”

“This election does not mean that San Francisco has drifted to the far right on our approach to criminal justice,” Jung continued. “In fact, San Francisco has been a national beacon for progressive criminal justice reform for decades and will continue to do so with new leadership. By recalling Boudin from office, San Francisco can now move forward in charting a better and safer path for our city.”

California primary election 2022 results

In a speech at The Ramp on the waterfront, Boudin interpreted the results as the result of frustration with the city’s intractable problems, such as City Hall corruption, and societal changes, such as the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns.

“People are right to be frustrated. There’s so much room for improvement. People should hold all of us to a higher standard,” Boudin said.

Nonetheless, Boudin continued to blame the recall on the right-wing.

“Let me make it very clear about what happened tonight,” Boudin said. “The right-wing billionaires outspent us three-to-one and exploited an environment in which people are appropriately upset.”

Boudin was first elected as San Francisco’s district attorney in 2019, before many of the tumultuous events that have rocked American society in recent years — the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdowns, the nationwide increase in violence, the 2020 election and both impeachments of former President Donald Trump, and the mass protests after the police killing of George Floyd.

Boudin had been a deputy public defender and promised one of the most far-reaching experiments in criminal justice reform that a major American city had seen. He promised to go after rogue police and large corporations and reduce mass incarceration and racial disparities within the system.

For Boudin, the fight was personal ⁠—his parents, David Gilbert and Kathy Boudin, spent much of Chesa Boudin’s life in prison due to their role in a 1981 robbery while they were part of the violent leftist group the Weather Underground.

Boudin was also a leading face in a national movement of progressive prosecutors, a movement that included his predecessor as San Francisco’s top prosecutor, George Gascon.

Boudin’s 2019 run had been the first open race for district attorney in about a century, until Gascon abruptly resigned prior to his run for Los Angeles District Attorney, leading Mayor London Breed to appoint her favored candidate, Democratic regular Suzy Loftus, as the interim district attorney.

Loftus lost the position in the final round of ranked choice voting by a margin of 1.6%, and just months after Boudin took the reins of the office it seemed like the winds were in his favor as tens of millions of Americans expressed outrage over the very injustices Boudin promised to fight.

SF DA Chesa Boudin addresses recall, crime live in primetime on KRON4

But the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown brought with it a nationwide increase in homicides and violent crime. While San Francisco’s homicide rate has been about the same for most of the last decade, burglaries have risen 45% since 2019, and in 2021 alone the city saw a rise in hate crimes against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders of 567%.

The alleged December 31, 2020 killing of two women in a south of Market intersection by Troy McAlister was a crucial turning point. McAlister had trouble with the law for most of his adult life, and between June and December 2020 was arrested by the San Francisco Police Department five times. In each of the cases, however, the DA’s office declined to file charges.

A petition asking Boudin to resign garnered almost 15,000 signatures and its author, former Republican mayoral candidate Richie Greenberg, spearheaded the first recall petition, which came up short.

In a statement to KRON4 on Tuesday, Greenberg stated that the recall was “a bittersweet effort.”

“We shouldn’t be popping champagne bottles,” he stated. “People have died under Chesa Boudin’s watch. Lives have been ruined, families broken, businesses shuttered.

“Let this recall send a clear message to the rest of City Hall officials that we are unhappy with their governance,” he continued. “Polls recently show dismally low approval ratings for the Board of Supervisors, who need to take a hard look in the mirror and consider actual changes they each need to make in addressing our city’s myriad issues.”

And, however, an effort spearheaded by former San Francisco Democratic Party chair Mary Jung and bolstered by the support of former Assistant District Attorney Brooke Jenkins gained more and more momentum through 2021, qualifying for the ballot.

The signs were coming, though: Boudin’s chief of staff David Campos lost an assembly bid in April in a nearly 2-1 loss.

The recall succeeded despite only two supervisors endorsing it, and with the opposition of a majority of the city’s supervisors, the San Francisco Chronicle, and the San Francisco Democratic Party, though Breed’s silence was conspicuous.

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Breed, whose crackdown on poor street conditions in the Tenderloin neighborhood was questioned by Boudin, will now get to choose his successor.

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“This was never about one vote count, it was never about one election night party, it was never about specifically which person gets to be in the office of the district attorney,” he added. “This is a movement, not a moment, in history.”

Brooke Jenkins, a former assistant district attorney in Boudin’s office, and a lead organizer in the campaign to remove him, voiced gratitude at an election night party at the Del Mar lounge in the Marina District.

“I feel relieved. I feel hopeful for San Francisco,” she told KQED. “We knew all along this was not a Republican billionaire effort, that this was not a pushback against reform, that we were trying to protect reform. That we knew a DA can balance implementing reform with prioritizing public safety.”

The recall was largely driven by San Francisco’s more conservative neighborhoods — including the Sunset District, Marina District, Park Merced, and St. Francis Wood — where overall turnout was higher than in progressive-leaning districts that generally stood by Boudin.

While Boudin’s loss is decisive, he won’t be required to leave office until 10 days after the election is declared official by the Board of Supervisors, which may take place at its June 25 meeting. Mayor London Breed is expected to announce Boudin’s replacement soon thereafter.

A number of names have been floated to replace Boudin, including Jenkins, prosecutor Nancy Tung (who said she would run in a future election), and San Francisco Supervisor Catherine Stefani (one of the few elected officials to endorse the recall).

Breed on Wednesday insisted the city is not backing away from progressive criminal justice reforms, and pledged to meet with community groups and police officials before appointing the next DA.

“This does not mean that criminal justice reform in San Francisco is going anywhere. It does not mean that there will be, all of a sudden, a significant setback,” she said. “We want justice. But we also want to make sure that people have a second chance.”

A group of recall supporters — including Brooke Jenkins, center — take a selfie during an election night party at Del Mar in San Francisco on June 7, 2022. (Beth LaBerge/KQED)

And, Boudin may also choose to run in a future district attorney’s race. But newly appointed Supervisor Matt Dorsey, a former San Francisco police spokesperson who became one of the few elected officials to endorse Boudin’s recall, said he doesn’t think another election would bode well for Boudin, based on Tuesday’s vote.

“It could happen, yeah. But I think the numbers say something,” Dorsey said.

In the meantime, Dorsey noted, the debate over Boudin’s record has fractured the community, pitting neighbor against neighbor.

“The most important thing is, we’ve got to put the hurt feelings behind us and move the city forward,” he said.

The historic recall garnered national attention, bitterly dividing Democrats in the city on issues of crime, policing and public safety reform. The effort was fueled by a tsunami of contributions — more than $7 million, according to filings at the San Francisco Ethics Commission — from well-heeled donors, including real estate interests and Republican billionaire William Oberndorf, who individually gave north of $650,000.

San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin addresses a crowd at The Ramp restaurant after the effort to recall him succeeded. (Beth LaBerge/KQED)

In contrast, recall opponents raised less than half as much — about $3 million — with the largest donations from the American Civil Liberties Union, a criminal justice reform PAC and tech billionaire Chris Larsen.

For months, the Yes on H campaign has saturated San Francisco media with online, television and radio ads, while also investing heavily in a field operation and a texting campaign.

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“When you execute a plea deal, it needs to be one that’s responsible. Right? It needs to be one that’s proportionate to your criminal history and your current crime, and it needs to also put you in a position not to reoffend,” she said.

Jenkins also found fault with what she saw as Boudin’s rigid adherence to progressive policies.

“Much of the issue with Chesa that I see is that refusal to change course, even when he sees policies aren’t working,” she said. “Even when the public is screaming out, ‘Hey, we support reform, but this type of reform is not effective in balancing public safety.'”

Jenkins now inherits an office she once called “a sinking ship.” On Thursday, she acknowledged that lingering instability, vowing to “restore office morale to a much higher place,” and pledging equal treatment for DA prosecutors hired before and after Boudin’s arrival.

Breed emphasized that Jenkins, like Boudin, is committed to criminal justice reform. “This is not just about locking people up and throwing away the key,” she said. “This is not what we’re about in this city. This is about striking a balance and doing what’s right.”

Of the numerous candidates Breed interviewed for the job, Jenkins “stood out” as someone who not only recognized the need for compassion and understanding in the prosecutorial process, but also prioritized accountability and justice, the mayor said. “That balance of fairness is what made her stand apart.”

Jenkins, 40, was born and raised in the Bay Area and worked in private practice before joining the DA’s office in 2014 as a prosecutor in the misdemeanors unit. She worked her way up to the general felonies unit, where she prosecuted hate crimes for nearly two years, and then served in the homicide unit until her resignation in protest last fall.

Brooke Jenkins, Mayor London Breed’s pick for district attorney, enters a press conference at City Hall on July 7, 2022. (Beth LaBerge/KQED)

Set to be sworn in Friday, she will take over an office that has seen more than its share of turnover in recent years. Former DA Kamala Harris left the position to become California Attorney General in 2011, and her replacement, George Gascón, resigned in 2019 to run for Los Angeles DA.

Cristine Soto DeBerry, executive director of the progressive Prosecutors Alliance of California, and a Boudin supporter, said the new DA’s first task should be preventing a mass exodus of attorneys.

“It’s better for victims and survivors of crime to not have a lot of turnover of their case from one lawyer to the next and one advocate to the next,” she said.

Jenkins, however, won’t have much time to get comfortable in the job. In November, voters will decide whether she or another candidate fills out the remaining year in Boudin’s term. If she wins, Jenkins will face voters again in 2023 if she decides to seek a full four-year term.

According to a source familiar with the process, the mayor has spent “every day” since last month’s recall election thinking about this appointment, and held more than a dozen meetings at City Hall with community groups, former DA office staff, judges and various law enforcement officials. She also met with advocates for crime victims, as well as supporters and opponents of Boudin’s recall, the source said.

Breed reportedly asked potential appointees for their take on issues such as how to prosecute domestic violence, drug arrests and weapons charges. According to the mayor’s office, Breed wanted someone with prosecutorial experience who also was a supporter of criminal justice reform.

Although Breed did not take a formal position on Boudin’s recall, she had openly criticized his leadership, and it was evident she supported his removal from office, two-and-a-half years after he edged out her handpicked appointee, Suzy Loftus, in a very close election.

New San Francisco district attorney Brooke Jenkins listens to Mayor London Breed introduce her during a press conference at City Hall on July 7, 2022. (Beth LaBerge/KQED)

In addition to Jenkins, the mayor also reportedly considered Alameda County Deputy District Attorney Nancy Tung, who ran unsuccessfully for the job in 2019. Other potential candidates included SF Superior Court Judge Eric Fleming, a former prosecutor in the DA’s office, and Supervisor Catherine Stefani , who endorsed Boudin’s recall.

Efforts to recall Boudin, a progressive reformer, began not long after he took office in 2020, just as the pandemic began turning life upside down. San Francisco’s courts were included in the mass shutdown of in-person government operations, resulting in much slower prosecutions and resolutions of pending cases.

Boudin’s tenure also coincided with a sharp rise in anti-Asian hate crimes — both in San Francisco and across the country — as well as viral videos of organized “smash-and-grab” incidents at upscale stores in Union Square that fueled a general but often unfounded perception that crime was rising and Boudin was to blame.

“I think people being alone, people being isolated and existing through social media kind of led to a heightened sense that our city wasn’t safe, and [Boudin] took the blame for it,” said former police commissioner and recall opponent John Hamasaki. “He took the fall for it.”

Hamasaki, who was a strong critic of the San Francisco Police Department while he served as commissioner, noted that although the recall was framed by national media as a referendum on Boudin’s progressive policies, “within the recall crowd, there was never any specificity as to what they wanted — just that Boudin is doing a bad job and needs to be recalled.”

Indeed, shortly after the election, Breed insisted that she was not looking for a DA who would turn away from criminal justice reforms, which are broadly popular in San Francisco.

That sentiment was echoed by DeBerry.

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Former San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin said he would not run for reelection this year, saying he would instead take time with his family after “more than three years of nearly non-stop campaigning.”

Boudin previously said he had not ruled out running for his former job, following his recall from office in June.

In a 14-tweet thread Thursday morning, Boudin said over the past few weeks he had taken stock of the burden that campaigning has had on his family, adding that while he was “committed to criminal justice reform, I’m also committed to my family.

“My son is on the verge of taking his first step and speaking his first word. My wife’s research on Multiple Sclerosis at UCSF deserves the same support she has offered my work. My elderly father just came home from prison after more than 40 years,” Boudin said. “My mother died in May and I have not had time to clean out her apartment or plan her memorial or even mourn her death.”

Boudin went on to list his proudest accomplishments his team achieved during his two and a half years in office, including an expansion of victim services, resentencing work, a worker protection unit and their “historic strides in police accountability.”

Boudin could go after the DA post again in the next regular election, in November 2023. He has already filed paperwork with the city if he chooses to do run next year. Boudin’s tweets made no mention of whether he would run again in 2023.

The successful recall of Boudin touched off the creation of a November special election to determine who will serve the remainder of his initial term. District Attorney Brooke Jenkins was appointed by Mayor London Breed to fill the role.

Boudin and Jenkins both declined to be interviewed Thursday.

Megan Cassidy is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: megan.cassidy@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @meganrcassidy

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California Gov. Gavin Newsom says he was not at all surprised that San Francisco voters recalled progressive District Attorney Chesa Boudin last week, and he decried the national attention it drew.

“That was so predictable, predictable, particularly after the school board recall,” Newsom said Friday in an interview with Fox 11 Los Angeles. “Nothing about that was surprising.”

What was unexpected was the scrutiny it attracted, Newsom said, particularly the view that it was an “arbiter of something farther reaching.”

“I thought the punditry was a little overwhelming on it,” he said.

But the governor, who served as San Francisco’s mayor from 2004 to 2011, said he understood why Boudin was decisively voted out of office in Tuesday’s recall election.

“I think the issue in San Francisco, in particular, is people wanting the streets cleaned up — period. Full stop. Enough,” Newsom told Elex Michaelson, the host of the political podcast and television show “The Issue Is.” “They want the streets cleaned up. They want a sense of order from the disorder they’re feeling on the streets.”

He said while many factors contributed to the state of the city, including mental health problems and open air drug use, crime was one of the most visible components.

“And tag, the DA was it, meaning there was some attachment of accountability and responsibility,” said Newsom, who was in Los Angeles to attend climate-related events at the Summit of the Americas hemispheric conference.

Boudin, a former public defender, was narrowly elected in 2019, pleading to hold police officers and corporations accountable. But supporters of the recall said Boudin failed to protect the city’s broader population due to inexperience and fixed ideology, and that in moving to charge fewer arrestees and emphasize diversion more he was siding with offenders over victims.

Under Boudin, prosecutors were not allowed to seek cash bail, charge juveniles as adults, or request longer sentences due to gang affiliations.

While Newsom acknowledged such some of those policies contributed to the problems San Francisco is facing, he underscored that many Republican-led regions face similar issues.

“It’s right to focus on where we need to improve — not necessarily unique and distinctive,” he said.

Newsom, who handily beat back his own recall challenge last year, sailed through last week’s primary election and now will face Republican State Sen. Brian Dahle on the November ballot. He said he didn’t have an election night party as he knows how quickly political tides can turn.

“November is a lifetime away,” he said.

Newsom added that he is frustrated with “what is going on with the Democratic Party” on a national level, with pressing issues such as gun control and reproductive rights hanging in the balance. He stopped short of blaming President Biden.

“It’s not his job to organize at all levels the Democratic Party,” Newsom said, “That’s the Democratic Party’s responsibility.”

He also declined to criticize House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco or Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York.

“I don’t want to take a cheap shot,” Newsom said.

Repeating his reaction after recent news that the Supreme Court was poised to overturn abortion rights, he said, “Where the hell are we as a party to capture the narrative, to capture the imagination of the American people?”

Aidin Vaziri (he/him) is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: avaziri@sfchronicle.com

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SAN FRANCISCO — The recall of San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin is sparking conversation across the country, and there is a lot to talk about.

What does this mean for criminal justice reform? What’s next for Chesa Boudin? Another question being asked is what the recall says about the current state of San Francisco politics.

Recalled SF DA Chesa Boudin.

CBS

“From experience, and talking to people in the community, they were really frustrated about a lack of accountability for crimes that get committed in San Francisco.” said Mayor London Breed Wednesday morning in her first comments since the vote.

Some have described Boudin’s removal as a political earthquake; a sign that the tectonic plates of city politics are shifting.

“It definitely reflects the fact that a number of people have found each other,” said political analyst Melissa Caen. “To some degree, we can take the school board recall for that. It brought a number of parents together. It brought people in the Asian community together. And that’s a big part of what was behind this recall as well.”

That coalition can be seen in the map showing how different San Francisco neighborhoods voted. Chinatown looks like the Sunset, just as the Excelsior looks a bit like Nob Hill, and Pac Heights like Visitacion Valley. Very different parts of the city reached a kind of consensus.

“People in San Francisco regard themselves as progressive or liberal, within reason,” Caen said. “They’re not interested in total dysfunction.”

“I think, broadly, liberals, moderates, progressives, everybody wants a government that works for the city of San Francisco,” said SFSU Political Science Professor Jason McDaniel. “Right now, things are not going very well and I think that upsets a lot of people. So anybody that’s on the ballot right now would be in trouble.”

That’s another theory: that voters aren’t necessarily moving right, they’re just simply tired of dysfunction. If that’s the case, more incumbents may have things to worry about.

“I think the mayor, if things continue the way they are now for another year or so, that’s going to bode ill for the mayor’s chances of getting reelected,” McDaniel said.

Now that the voters of San Francisco have decided to remove district attorney Chesa Boudin, the next move is up to the mayor. London Breed will appoint someone until a special election to fill the seat is held this November.

Wilson Walker

Wilson Walker joined KPIX 5 in July of 2007. His television career started at WSOC-TV in Charlotte, North Carolina in 1999. There, he covered the departure of the Charlotte Hornets, The Rae Carruth case, and the devastating East Coast Ice Storm of 2002. He also spent three years in Sacramento with KCRA, covering California politics, the Hamid & Umer Hyat terrorism trial, and the Sacramento arena debate.

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